November 19, 2001

 

¿Casino(s)? ¡Casi-sí!

 

 By Barnard R. Thompson

 

Pardon the word play above, but with a likely select location return of casino gambling to Mexico in the not too distant future the urge could not go without rewarded.  More specifically, and while the debate over the operation of casinos in Mexico has reached on again/off again levels of passion since the mid-1990s, it appears that legislation currently in committee in the Mexican congress could be approved — in one form or another — by early next year.

 

In 1934, President Lázaro Cárdenas banned casino gambling in Mexico (with certain event and/or festival related exceptions).  Today all wager gaming is federally regulated, through the 1947 promulgated “Federal Gambling and Raffles Law” that will have to be amended in order to again allow casinos to open and operate in the United Mexican States.  Mexico’s National Lottery operates under a separate authority.

 

Much of the public debate today is advocate arguments in favor of anticipated economic benefits, such as the promise of development and the attraction to foreign investment; the creation of much needed jobs; how casinos will be a magnet to increase tourism; and how income and foreign exchange would be from national to local benefit.  In opposition, boilerplate issues relating to moral and social costs take center stage.

 

Challengers argue that where there are casinos there is organized crime, and that these facilities could become money laundries or worse.  The potential for crime and social ills that include drug trafficking and use, prostitution and gambling addictions are emphasized, in opinions that contend whole communities could be corrupted.

 

Seemingly in league with the other pro-casino exercises that are taking place, and with the familiar complement of government attitudes, political maneuvering and entrepreneurial choreography, the Mexican government has again stepped into the fray.  On November 12 and 13, in Mexico City, the National Tourism Development Fund (Fonatur) sponsored a symposium titled “Mexican Tourism Investment Exchange 2001,” and while casinos were not listed on the agenda news reports indicate that this was an important topic.

 

The Mexico City daily El Economista (November 13) had a piece with the sub-headline (informal translations) “Fonatur asks congress to approve the operation of casinos.”  After briefly mentioning that 181 (non-casino) projects, valued at US$4.294 billion, have been catalogued on the exchange by the government, the report continued: “John McCarthy, general director of Fonatur … said that the approval of casinos could reactivate the nation’s tourist sector, and he urged legislators to renew discussion of that initiative.”

 

Mexico’s new “National Tourism Program 2001-2006” (Secretariat of Tourism), that was published earlier this month, has a single paragraph about casinos.  It begins: “The Secretariat of Tourism considers casinos as a complement to the tourism supply/offer….”  The paragraph goes on to confirm the ministry’s respect for the legislative branch of government, that has the responsibility “to modify or create the relevant legislation, and to prepare a proper legal framework, in order to regulate betting games.”  In conclusion it states: “The main challenge lies in the ability to guide investments in order to reach the true potential of the installation of casinos, with tangible benefits for the destination sites and the nation’s tourist development.”

 

As to the work of the legislature, Senator Gustavo Cárdenas Gutiérrez (PAN, Tamaulipas), who chairs the senate’s tourism committee, recently said that work is being done in both houses of congress to modify the laws and to bring about the changes requested by the private sector.  (Last February, on entering the office of Cárdenas in Mexico City — on something unrelated to casinos, the senator laughingly took one look at this visitor and said: “I know. Casinos. Casinos. Casinos.”)

 

Last April, during Mexico’s annual “Tourism Tianguis” (an international marketing and promotion event), National Tourism Entrepreneurial Council president Isaac Finkler mentioned the important need to reform the Federal Gambling and Raffles Law in order to allow casinos in Mexico.  In June, José Luis Yuñez Celis, the coordinator of economic and social studies of the Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce, told the government news agency Notimex that allowing casinos in Mexico could bring about an investment of between US$2.5 and US$3 billion, it could create 180,000 jobs, and annual tax revenue could be US$1.35 billion.

 

Miguel Torruco Márquez, president of the Mexican Hotel and Motel Association, has criticized the government for not having implemented an emergent plan to reactivate the economy.  Furthermore, he says that a new Federal Gambling and Raffles Law should be given “fast track” treatment, so that Mexico can have casinos.  “The opening of ten casinos in strategic areas of Mexico, with an initial investment of US$800 million, would generate US$5 million annually in income and create 115,000 jobs,” he said.  (Reforma, Mexico City; October 4, 2001.)

 

The legislation now before congress, for a new Federal Betting/Wager Games, Raffles and Casinos Law — at least in the drafts obtained by this observer, includes a limited initial number of handpicked locations where Monte Carlo or Montreal-type casinos will be built.  In the first stage, casinos are not expected to be an integral part of specific hotels as is the case in Las Vegas.